An unusual trend is gaining popularity in China: head enlargement (7 photos) (photo)

An unusual beauty trend has emerged in China: some women are trying to visually enlarge their heads to make them look rounder and more "doll-like."





This trend complements other unconventional beauty standards found in Asian countries—for example, the desire for very thin legs, a particular face shape, or other cosmetic procedures. This new fashion trend is yet another example of how diverse perceptions of beauty can be across cultures.

Let's measure skulls?



I always remember this picture.

The beauty ideal in Asia, not just China, is a high skull. It's believed that a high skull and a rounded crown make the face appear small and the silhouette elegant. It's like children have big heads, and if you look like a child, you're young and fresh (or at least, you look that way). This has become a new social media fetish. It's believed that the distance from the base of your hairline to the top of your head should be roughly the same as the distance from your hairline to your eyebrows, otherwise you look "flattened" and generally plebeian.





Let's all go measure ourselves in the mirror. I'm an ugly Chinese woman...

So Chinese women began looking for ways to enlarge their skulls. It all started with hyaluronic acid injections into the crown, but these only provided a temporary and insignificant effect. Moreover, if overdone, baldness could occur. So the wealthier ones immediately resorted to radical measures – installing "bone cement" (bone filler) into the skull or installing special implants.



Skull Overlay

It's reported that the cost of such a procedure can reach 180,000 yuan. Of course, it's dangerous, because you're like little children. Besides the fact that fillers placed under the scalp can compress blood vessels and disrupt blood flow, leading to hair loss, in extreme cases, this can lead to necrosis. Right on the scalp.



Who even thought of injecting fillers under the hair?

And the main danger is that in China, fillers are injected under the scalp not by surgeons in hospitals, but by cosmetologists in treatment rooms. But here it's worth remembering the responsibility of Chinese women who voluntarily agree to such procedures, lowering the standards and requirements for doctors throughout the industry. Why improve the service when there's already a long line for skull augmentation? To avoid having to have their skulls filed down in adulthood, many mothers have become concerned about their children's beauty from infancy – they're buying orthopedic children's helmets en masse.



This helmet is soft and humane.

They are supposed to form the "correct" round head shape with a prominent forehead. These helmets cost between 2,000 and 20,000 yuan, and children are even forced to sleep in them (otherwise, the bone will revert back to its original shape). Incidentally, it's possible to change the shape of a child's skull because the skull bone is softer and more pliable in a growing body. However, it's a different matter if the pressure required is really strong, which would cause pain to children.



The Chinese explain very scientifically that your child needs a helmet and a SPECIAL PILLOW.

Parents also often bandage their children's shins to prevent them from growing crooked. And then I thought, of all things, I'd be grateful to my parents for having straight legs as an adult. So, I'm just as susceptible to standards as all Chinese people, I was just lucky to grow up in a different cultural environment! How weak a person is.